Choir Justinijana Prima: CD with the stasis of Holy Friday

[Anatolij]

The choir Justinijana Prima, of the Orthodox Seminary St. Clement of Ohrid in Skopje, has published a CD with the service of Holy Friday. The troparia are in Church-slavonic and the stasis in modern FYR macedonian. You can hear the songs here: http://www.mediafire.com/?oxiey0tnjuf
We wait for your comment.

 

[Dimitri]

Interesting Antonij, thank you. Are you a member of this choir? I noticed they use Western intervals and the ison sometimes is strangely harmonised. Is this the music one will likely hear in a church in FYROM these days? Or is there a revival of Byzantine Chant there? What schools are there and who are the teachers? Thanks in advance for the information.

 

[Π. Δαβίδ]

Welcome Antonij! Send my greetings to Prof. Kodzabasija and Protopsalt Goce Sekuloski!
The first file has the troparia from the beginning of Great Saturday Matins "Noble Joseph" etc. The stasis hymns are chanted with the verses of psalm 118 being recited before them, a practice virtually defunct in Greek parish usage (Karas tried to revive it) but still popular in Slavic churches.
Indeed Dimitri is right about the ison, yet it is a good effort overall.
The churches in that part of the Balkans did have a good psaltic tradition both in Greek (in congregations faithful to the Patriarchate) and Church Slavonic (in congragations that had joined the Bulgarian exarchate). When these lands became part of Serbia after the Balkan wars the Serbs imposed by force the use of their folk style church music (pojanje) and this is the music which still is widely used.
From the early 2000's onwards there has been a revival of monasticism and psaltic music though there is still a lot to be done...

 

[Anatolij]

Yes, that is my choir. In our church the singing is renewing. Starting from the mid '90s, when the Metropolitan Naum and Archimandritе Parthenij came back from Mount Athos. In 2004 the Holy Synod of our Church decided to return our chant assigning Protopsaltis Goce Sekuloski for a teacher in the Seminary. We are experiencing many difficulties. Concerning the staseis, only the psaltеs and priests which live and serve in Byzantine tradition read the verses from 118 psalm, and those who sing Serbian chant, do not do that.

 

[IsCrMu]

The choir Justinijana Prima, of the Orthodox Seminary St. Clement of Ohrid in Skopje, has published a CD with the service of Holy Friday. The troparia are in Church-slavonic and the stasis in modern FYR macedonian. You can hear the songs here: http://www.mediafire.com/?oxiey0tnjuf
We wait for your comment.

Hi Otec Anatolij, can you please share the link to the CD with the service of Holy Friday of the choir Justinijana Prima. Thank you ( the link you have posted earlier is not active anymore)